פרופ' נילי סמט

2006–2010

Ph.D. in Biblical Studies. Bar-Ilan University (Magna Cum Laude).

Thesis: The Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur: A Revised Edition.

Supervisor: Jacob Klein.

2003–2005

M.A. in Assyriology. Hebrew University (Cum Laude).

Thesis: The Dialogue of Pessimism: A Revised Edition.

Supervisor: Wayne Horowitz.

1998–2000

B.Ed. in Bible. Herzog College (Cum Laude).

2021:

Israel Science Foundation, Research Workshop Grant.

2017–2021:

Israel Science Foundation, Individual Research Grant.

2020:

David Noel Freedman Award for Excellence and Creativity in Hebrew Bible Scholarship.

2020:

Humanities and Social Sciences Fund, Grant for initiating an international conference at Bar-Ilan (shared with other fellows).

2019, 2011,

2013, 2014:

Beit-Shalom Grant, Bar-Ilan University.

2018:

Starr Fellowship in Judaica at the Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University.

2016:

Israel Council for Higher Education, Grant for Developing a Massive Open Online Course.

2015:

Research grant from the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development.

2018, 2015, 2013:

IHEL Foundation Grant, Bar-Ilan University.

2011‒2014:

Alon Fellowship for Outstanding young researchers, Israel Council for Higher Education.

2011‒2012:

Research Grant, Jewish Memorial Foundation, New York.

2010–2011:

Bikura Postdoctoral Scholarship, Israel Science Foundation.

2010:

Churgin Award for Excellent PhD thesis.

2009–2010:

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Samuel Noah Kramer Institute for Assyriology.

2009–2010:

President Fellowship for Post-Doctoral Research, Bar-Ilan               University.

2005–2008

President Fellowship for Excellent Ph.D. Students, Bar-Ilan

University.

2007

Research Grant for collating tablets in Musées d’art et d’histoire, Genève, Bar-Ilan University.

2022‒2023

Visiting scholar, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.

2022‒2023

Visiting scholar, Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London.

2011‒ Present

Professor, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan.

2018

Starr Fellow, the Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University.

2009–2011

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania.

2007–2008

Lecturer, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan.

2005–2007

Lecturer, Matan Institute for Jewish Studies, Jerusalem.

2004–2005

Adjunct lecturer, Herzog College, Alon-Shvut.

November 2022:

“The Book of Qohelet in its Hellenistic Jewish context”, Institute of Jewish Studies Online Lecture Series, University College London.

November 2022:

“Qohelet in Its Relation to the Jewish Literature of Its Time”, Seminar on Jewish History & Literature in the Graeco-Roman Period, Oxford University.

November 2022:

“Qohelet's Jewish-Hellenistic Background Reconsidered”, Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) Research Seminar, University of Cambridge.

November 2022:

“The Peculiar Semantics of Late Biblical Hebrew: Qohelet's Language as a Test Case”, Cambridge Middle Eastern Linguistics and Philology Seminar, University of Cambridge.

August 2022:

“Semantic Shifts in the Language of Post Exilic Books and Their Contribution to the Reconstruction of Late Biblical Hebrew: Qohelet 1-5 as a Test Case”, the Eighteenth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem.

July 2022:

 “Redaction and Transmission of Mesopotamian and Biblical Wisdom: a Comparative Look”, SBL 2022 International Meeting, Salzburg.

June 2022:

“LBH Phenomena as a Tool for Discerning Textual Strata in the Bible: Some Syntactic and Lexicographic Test Cases”, Online International Workshop: New discoveries in Late Biblical Hebrew Syntax and beyond.

May 2022:

“The Relationship between God, Humans and Cosmos in Sumerian City Laments and in Biblical Parallels”, Conference of the Dept. of Bible, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv.

December 2021:

“Patterns of Development in Biblical Wisdom in Light of the Textual History of Wisdom in Mesopotamia and Beyond”, Bible Symposium, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

November 2021:

Panelist at the Yale Ecclesiastes Seminar Roundtable, Yale University.

November 2021:

“Qohelet’s Language: An Extra-Linguistic Look.”, Awardee Keynote in the Freedman Award Session, SBL 2021 Annual Meeting, San-Antonio.

August 2021:

“the Day of Yahweh and Mesopotamian Lamentation Literature”, online workshop of the project Biblical Job in the Motif Network of the Ancient Near Eastern Literature, University of Tartu.

November 2020:

“The Quivis Construction in Biblical Hebrew: A History of a Syntactic Change”, SBL 2020 Virtual Meeting.

January 2020:

“Qohelet’s Language in Its Cultural Context”, Old Testament Seminar, Oxford University.

November 2019:

“Databases and Distorted Conclusions in Discussions of LBH: ˀt nominativi as a Test-Case”, SBL 2019 Annual Meeting, San-Diego.

July 2019:

“How Deterministic is Qohelet? A New Reading the Catalogue of Time and Its Appendix”, SBL 2019 International Meeting, Rome.

November 2018:

“Linguistic Dating of the Book of Qohelet: a New Direction”, SBL 2018 Annual Meeting, Denver.

November 2018:

“Which Aramaic Dialect Stands at the Background of the Book of Qohelet?”, Mainz International Colloquium on Ancient Hebrew, Mainz.

February 2018:

“Qohelet’s Idiolect: The Language of a Jew in a Changing World”, Starr Seminar, Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University, Boston.

March 2018:

“Qohelet’s Language: an Extra-Linguistic Look”, Jewish Theological Seminary, New York.

November 2017:

“A Diachronic Look at the Biblical Root hbq”, SBL 2017 Annual Meeting, Boston.

November 2016:

“Qohelet between Ancient Near Eastern and Hellenistic Traditions”, Workshop on Teaching Morals in Antiquity: Wisdom Texts, Oral Traditions, and Images, Leipzig.

November 2016:

“New Light on the Administrative Term bēn bayît and Its Implications for Linguistic Dating”, SBL 2016 Annual Meeting, San-Antonio.

November 2015:

“The Question of LBH Syntax”. SBL 2015 Annual Meeting, Atlanta.

October 2015:

“Toward a Description of LBH Syntax: The Case of Ecclesiastes 1−2”, Mainz International Colloquium on Ancient Hebrew, Mainz.

July 2015:

“Linguistic Dating of the Book of Proverbs: Methods, Problems and Preliminary Results”, Humboldt University, Berlin.

June 2015:

“The Redaction of Qohelet in Light of Mesopotamian Wisdom Literature”, University of Koblenz-Landau, Landau.

June 2015:

“Biblical and Mesopotamian Vanity Literature”, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg.

June 2014:

“Gilgamesh and Qohelet: A New Look”, SBL 2014 International Meeting, Vienna.

June 2014:

“The Motif of Vanity in Ancient Near Eastern Literature: Transmission, Reception and Adaptation,” International Conference on 3000 Years of Textual Production and Dissemination in the ANE, Tel Aviv University.

January 2014:

“Family Relations in Mesopotamian Proverb Literature”, Annual Conference of the Israel Society for Assyriology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Tel-Aviv.

November 2013:

“Dating the Book of Proverbs on Linguistic Grounds: Challenges and Chances”, SBL 2013 Annual Meeting, Baltimore.

August 2013:

“Philosophical Terms in the Book of Qohelet”, 16th World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem.

July 2013:

“Dating the Hezekian Collection on Linguistic Grounds”, SBL 2013 International Meeting, St. Andrews.

May 2013:

“Qohelet and the Ancient Near Eastern Literature of Vanity: A Reassessment”, International Conference on Jewish Religion in Light of New Inscriptions and Papyri, Jeselsohn Epigraphic Center for Jewish History, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan.

November 2012:

“Are We Still Allowed to Read Literature as History? The Sumerian City Laments as a Test-Case”, Conference on Historical Memory in the Ancient Near East, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv.

July 2012:

“Removing a Garment on a Cold Day: the MT of Proverbs 25,20 and the Redaction History of Biblical Proverbs”, SBL 2012 International Meeting, Amsterdam.

April 2011:

“Agricultural Imagery in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Descriptions of Catastrophes”, Hebrew Bible Seminar, Columbia University, New York.

November 2010:

“On the Agricultural Imagery in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Descriptions of Catastrophes”, SBL 2010 Annual Meeting, Atlanta.

May 2010:

“Biblical Thought vs. Ancient Near Eastern Thought as Reflected in the Wisdom Literature”, The Judaic Studies Program, Drexel University, Philadelphia.

April 2010:

“On the Phenomenon of Literary Adaptation in the Bible and the Ancient Near East”, Jewish Theological Seminary, New York.

February 2010:

“Processes of Literary Adaptation in the Bible and the Ancient Near East: An Ancient Proverb as a Test Case”, Judah Goldin Seminar for Biblical studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

November 2009:

“The Tallest Man Cannot Reach Heaven; The Broadest Man Cannot Cover Earth” –Reconsidering the Proverb and its Biblical Parallels”, SBL 2009 Annual Meeting, New Orleans.

August 2009:

“The Sumerian City Laments and the Book of Lamentation: A Comparative Theological View”, Fifteenth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem.

January 2006:

“Take off a Garment in Cold Weather (Proverbs 25:20)”, Torah Study, Exegesis and Research: International Conference Marking the Centenary of Nehama Leibowitz’s Birth, The Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem.

2020‒2021:

Prize committee member, Ze’ev and Tzippora Ben-Hayyim Prize, The Academy of the Hebrew Language.

2019–Current:

Program Unit Co-Chair, International SBL Section of Biblical Hebrew Language and Linguistics.

2017–Current:

Program Unit Co-Chair, International SBL Section of Wisdom Literature in the Bible and in the Ancient Near East Section.

2016–Current:

Steering Committee Member, SBL Section of Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions.

2016‒Current:

Developing and Running a MOOC titled The Bible in Light of the Ancient Near East. Current no. of students: ca. 12,000.

2015–Current:

Trustee Committee Member, The Israel Society for Assyriology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Israel.

2014–2015:

Member of the Young Scholars Forum of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

2007–2009:

Editorial Board member, Massekhet (published by Matan, Jerusalem, in association with Heller Center for the Study of Women, Bar Ilan University).